A new loyalty system for local business

YouGET -- available online, and via web mobile and app -- works most conveniently on the smartphone, where all the loyalty activity is at hand. It works like a key fob, an old-style plastic loyalty card and a paper stamp card all rolled into one. A shop can issue vouchers to the phone – or issue virtual stamps, called ‘GETS’ that you collect on a virtual stamp card to earn a reward.

You collect GETS by scanning a QR code (those black squares with squiggles in the middle) with the phone (or you can enter a number online). In most cases, the QR code is on a ticket which is handed over when you make a purchase, but it can also be displayed in-store. Each scan earns  ‘GETs’ and, like with the paper stamp cards, when you collect a full card – up to 12 – you’ve earned the reward.

The clever part is that these virtual stamps and card can never be lost. When you first add a stamp you open a personal account where the value is stored – not only for the business visited – but for any business participating in YouGET loyalty.  Each business sets its own loyalty terms and values – what you do to get a stamp and what you receive – but it’s all in one place and on one app for easy access.

 Each business can send updates and news to your account so you always know when a good deal is on or if there’s something special awaiting. You can even interact with the business if it issues a mini-survey that you can answer on the smartphone and earn GETs wherever you are.

But the cleverest part is that YouGET is both an independent loyalty system for each business and a place where you can exchange value among businesses that choose to cooperate. This could be a matter of a shop giving GETS to be used in a nearby parking lot or on a much grander scale, a major international producer gives out GETS to be used in thousands of local shops selling their product.

This is unique, and explains why YouGET is much more than another bit of technology. Behind the pretty exterior, the YouGET teams in the UK and Netherlands are creating relationships that will benefit the consumer and small business in ways never possible on large scale before.

In the Netherlands, a major producer of potatoes has sponsored a programme at hundreds of fish and chip shops, whereby buyers of chips earn stamps branded to the producer – and for that little bit of promotion – can earn free chips. Elsewhere, a beer company offers consumers free entry to night clubs in exchange for completing mini-surveys about their product.

It’s a sad fact of modern American consumer life. Every time we swipe a piece of plastic at a gas station, grocery store or anywhere else, we’re vulnerable to cyberpickpockets.

That reality hit earlier this month when the Raley’s grocery chain in Sacramento, Calif., said it had been the victim of a cyberattack targeting customers’ credit and debit card numbers. The attack, which was reported to the FBI, is just one bite of a growing problem: Increasingly, credit and debit card numbers have become commodities sold by cyberthieves who harvest them from banks, businesses, restaurants and retailers.

Last year, targeted attacks on businesses jumped 42 percent, according to Symantec, the Mountain View, Calif.-based security software firm. Attacks spiked 31 percent among companies with fewer than 250 employees.

The attacks comprise a shift from mass assaults by computer viruses, worms and other cyberthreats to more pinpointed, targeted infiltrations, say online security experts. The attackers, often located overseas, “find this method more effective because it allows them to fly under the radar and avoid drawing widespread attention to their malware,” Brian Burch, vice president of consumer and small business marketing at Symantec, said in an email.

Small businesses are frequently targeted because they often lack adequate security practices, said Burch. Additionally, because small firms often partner with bigger organizations, cybercriminals “sometimes use them to gain access to a larger company.”

Longtime customer Pat Hoschler got a call June 3 from her financial institution, Schools Federal Credit Union, telling her that a suspicious $95 charge was made on her card in Atlanta. A second charge, for $125, was stopped by the credit union before it went through, she said.

‘’It gives me the creeps to think someone might be using my name and (debit) card information. I worry about it. I may not use my debit card anymore,” said Hoschler, who said she uses her debit card for Raley’s purchases several times a week.

Typically, the thieves who steal the data from retailers and other targets aren’t the ones who use it to rack up fraudulent charges. “There’s an underground ecosystem for the sale, transfer, purchase and exchange of stolen credit card and debit card information,” said security expert Hardy.

The dunking stool was a great success. Five great sports volunteered to get dunked for charity by anyone buying three softball tosses for five dollars - RTM Moderator Eileen Flug; former Board of Education member, and now First Selectman candidate Jim Marpe; Superintendent of Schools Elliott Landon; Third Selectman Charlie Haberstroh; and last minute volunteer Reverend Ed Horne, Senior Pastor of the United Methodist Church Westport. State Representative and Sunrise Rotarian Gail Lavielle oversaw the event.

Almost 100 people bought in. Each threw balls at a small circular plate about 10 feet away. Hitting the plate pushed a lever that dumped the dunkee into a four foot deep pool of water.

Flug got dunked 11 times, all the others close to that number. Haberstroh's daughter Kim offered the ultimate what-for - having lost her softball skills, she missed all three tosses, then slid up to the plate, banged it with her elbow and watched her unsuspecting father take another drop.

The club again sponsored a Duck Decorating competition. More than a dozen businesses and organizations bought yellow plastic ducks - big brothers and sisters of the racers - and transformed them into art objects. Celebrity judges Miggs Burroughs, Nina Bentley and Cathy Colgan selected three winners, a food themed quacker created by Lavinia Hurd of Whole Foods in Westport took First Prize, Indulge by Mersene won second, and Gault Rocks took third place.

Click on their website www.smartcardfactory.com for more information.